[tlug] Mint 18.1 scanner (suddenly!) not recognized

[Raedwolf Sumner <rarooam@example.com>]

Moved up from Linux Mint 17.1 to 18.1. Liked the move, seems easier to get the drivers I use, and easily got GoogleEarth working with all the panoramio fotos. Printer and scanner installed fairly easily. Certainly easier than on any previous install.

Had to add saned to the scanner (lp) group to use without sudo. Running the scanner under GIMP with xsane was working just fine.

Until today.

Suddenly clicking on "Device dialog" from the gimp xsane menu gets "no devices available" and clicking on "brother3:bus2;dev1" in the same menu gets an "invalid argument". Sudo xsane from a terminal also gets "no devices available". I don't think I have installed any new software, though I couldn't swear to that since I haven't used the scanner in a couple of weeks. I have searched online, but am just coming up with instructions for installing and doing what I did on the original install.

The connection is USB.

Any suggestions on where to go from here? I have to use the scanner and am tempted to just go to Yodobashi and get an HP or something that I can plug in and have it work. I'd rather get this working again, though.

Thanks for any input!
Ralph Sumner